Prime Minister Andy Burnham has barely settled into No 10 and already he is reaching for the problems previous administrations preferred to kick down the road. Next week he begins work on fixing adult social care. In the days that follow he will set out interventions on youth unemployment and devolution.
A source close to the new premier says the determination is clear. Burnham wants to demonstrate early momentum. He believes governments should improve lives, not simply manage decline. The neglected state of social care, in particular, strikes him as indefensible. Failure to act on how the system works and how it is funded in England has gone on too long.
The numbers on youth unemployment make uncomfortable reading. Official figures show the rate hit 16.2 percent in the period discussed during the parliamentary debate on 16 July, the highest in more than a decade. Between January and March this year the number of 16- to 24-year-olds not in education, employment or training topped one million for the first time since 2013. By March to May the count of unemployed young people stood at 743,000, pushing the rate to 16.4 percent.
The cost of a lost generation
These are not abstract statistics. They point to a cohort of young people who risk being written off. Burnham has long argued that the answer lies in giving real power to those closer to the ground. He has spoken before about devolving labour market policy and investment to mayors and combined authorities. The idea is to let local leaders tackle the specific barriers facing their communities rather than wait for another central blueprint that never quite fits.
According to Yahoo News, a No 10 source indicated that Prime Minister Andy Burnham will begin addressing adult social care next week and will make interventions on youth unemployment and devolution in the coming days as part of an effort to tackle neglected domestic priorities and restore hope. The Academy of Life Planning blog has reported that Andy Burnham will give mayors and councils responsibility for helping a lost generation of young people into work through devolution of labour market policy. Hansard records from the House of Lords debate on 16 July 2026 confirm the scale of the challenge with youth unemployment at 16.2 percent and over one million NEETs.
This is not about expanding bureaucracy for its own sake. It is about restoring function to institutions that have drifted. Social care touches families at their most vulnerable moments. Youth unemployment wastes talent and stores up future costs in welfare and lost taxes. Devolution done properly hands responsibility to people who can see the results on their own streets.
